The look on Freeze’s face went viral.

He was sitting at his podium for his Monday press conference. There, he was asked about Georiga head coach Kirby Smart quickly building his program, and if he could do the same at Auburn.

At first, Freeze said he didn’t know exactly how long it took to get Georgia to the level it is at now, with three championship appearances since 2017 and two trophies. He assumed it must have taken Smart three or four years.

“They were in the national championship his second year,” the reporter said, off to Freeze’s right.

Freeze turns to look at him. A look of bewilderment on his face.

“His second year,” Freeze said. “I don’t know if that’s accurate.”

Except, it is accurate. And that was pointed out to Freeze.

“He did it pretty quickly then,” Freeze responded. “That’s even more impressive.”

Maybe that look of surprise comes from knowing it’s not going to happen that quickly at Auburn. Freeze has already talked about waiting until his third or fourth year to truly compete.

These situations are different, Auburn and Georgia. But as Freeze prepares for his first time in the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Jordan-Hare Stadium against a program he’s called the gold standard of college football right now, Freeze’s interests are being pulled multiple different ways. He’s in a battle to rebuild, to keep those he already has happy and do so with a clock ticking over him.

Step one of this rebuild comes from installing his system. That hasn’t worked so far. Freeze is offensive-minded and he reached a head coaching job in the nation’s best college football conference by using his run-pass-option offensive scheme.

But against Texas A&M — Auburn’s worst performance of the season — Auburn didn’t run a single RPO play.

Freeze hired Philip Montgomery away from a head coaching job in Tulsa to be Auburn’s offensive coordinator. The idea was to hire someone who could call plays to allow Freeze to focus on the many facets it takes to build a program.

Freeze has said for months that it has been difficult to give up playcalling. But when it’s gotten this bad, Freeze can’t take it anymore.

“If we don’t see more RPO plays, I’m going to have a heart attack,” Freeze said Thursday on his weekly Tiger Talk radio appearance.

So he’s focused more on the offense this week. Focused more on working with Montgomery and more time with quarterback Payton Thorne.

But putting this attention into the offense now — exactly what Freeze said he didn’t want to do — prevents him from looking at step two.

Step two is recruiting. It is recruiting high school players and those out of the transfer portal. It is getting the type of 4-star and 5-star recruits Auburn has already begun to land, highlighted by 5-star wide receiver Perry Thompson and an overall 2024 recruiting class ranked in the top 20 nationally.

On Tiger Talk, Freeze said he expects to have around 70 high school recruits at the game against Georgia. Every second he spends focusing on Montgomery and play-calling is time he can’t spend with Auburn’s future.

And that is step three: weighing the balance of a fanbase hungry to win now with his long-term plan.

“The wins will come, I believe that firmly, but whatever people’s patience level is — I can’t control that,” Freeze said Monday. “I can’t worry about it, and I don’t worry about it. I worry about the people in this building and this organization. I worry about our fans, too, but I can’t control their patience level.”

Freeze has been candidly talking about Auburn’s talent gap. He’s been candidly talking about the work it takes to fix that — his plan to truly compete with the elite SEC teams will take another three to four years.

He’s received questions about whether to proverbially wave the white flag by looking as far as starting Holden Geriner to build for the future. But giving Geriner the meaningful snaps he lacks in a game against Georgia doesn’t make much sense and Freeze must balance the message he’s sending to the team he already has — many of whom won’t be here when Auburn is at the level Freeze wants.

“I think it’s kind of ridiculous that those are already discussions in and around our kids,” Freeze said. “I do. But it’s not something we worry about. But they should expect us to improve.”

It will start with calling more RPO plays.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]